What's gone wrong in England?

England's streets are calm again. But there's still plenty of interesting debate going on as to the causes of the riots that swept across London, Birmingham, Manchester and several other towns, and have now resulted in well over 2,000 arrests.

To a perhaps surprising degree, Lara Pawson and&nbspPeter Oborne&nbspare in agreement. &nbspThey are both saying there is a moral crisis in England.&nbspBut whereas, I would suggest, Lara is saying that the&nbspBritish class system is intrinsically corrupt (and the product of a cruel and exploitative history), Peter is saying that this is a&nbspcountry that&nbsp has recently &nbsplost its way.

Typically, British critics on the left have blamed the riots on poverty, whilst those on the right talk about a criminal culture of irresponsibility in our cities. This article, in The Economist, tries to steer the middle ground

Finally, who were the rioters? There's been a lot of coverage in England of&nbspthe handful of arrests of well-educated,&nbspmiddle-class people who took part.&nbspBut detailed analysis here by The Guardian shows that less than 10 per cent have jobs or are in full-time education.